Friday, August 14, 2015

Like a lot of you, I buy pens. Sometimes= for all the wrong reasons. Some people tend to eat when they are bored...some people play games...I tend to make rash, odd pen purchases. I generally remain within budget and try not to splurge and I think this is how I ended up with these Jinhao fountain pens. Probably off of Amazon, maybe off of Ebay or possible from Jetpens. No clue.

They are cool looking right? Nice beefy clip, nice colors, clear all around so you can see that ...yes, those are converters in there. I am not positive, but I think these are the 599's. (Which is also about what I think I paid for all three.) I could be wrong on both of those assumptions.

I am pretty sure I know what happened...I bought these, inked one up, decided they were a little too mediumy for my taste and tucked them away. My nib taste has been running in the EXTRA fine mode for fountain pens lately and rarely go too far away from that. I think only one has been inked. It's a small, tidy, cheap sin... I know.

Here's how they break down, I know what you are saying. Looks a lot like a Lamy. Well who am I to assume that, but yes, it's a little eerie.

Spooky World!

My Lamy has a black nib, so they are clearly not similar. Case Closed, Court Adjourned, Brady is a free man.

But, really, these are not terrible. The nib is smooth, it's not a overly light pen and when writing it has a nice balance to it. This could be on the list of pens that if I lost, I wouldn't go crazy searching the house for it. (The Mrs. is still looking for her good set of keys by the way.)

In other news, (and speaking of eerie) Lewis nailed the small little contest I held and with a few tips CRUSHED the test. Lewis your prize is... pick one of the above pens, I will clean it, buff it up and ship it out to you. Give me a shout and it's a done deal.

Bottom line (almost literally) take a chance, skip the Venti Extra Hot soy decaf latte and go buy a cheap pen. Use it, or give it away. No harm- no foul. Everyone should have a few inked up just in case.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

I looked down at my desk and found out I was pretty happy with the 5 pens that I have been keeping inked up and alive. Five is a really good "everyday at the office" number for me. Starting left to right:

1. Pentel Sign Pen. (.42 cents or so)

I buy these by the 12 pack from Amazon. If I need to scribble details on a call or meeting, I grab this. Writes big, fat, sloppy and is guaranteed to write. AK-47... not built for precision, but built to work, regardless.

2. 0.5 Pentel mechanical non pen. ($4.00)

I generally prefer a .04, but I also prefer that I can heavy hand it and the lead will not snap. I use the Lamy lead refills. They are a little more expensive, but for some reason they work out better for me.

3. Pilot G-6 07. (5.00)

kidding, seriously, did you just meet me? OK, it's a G-7 body with a Zebra .04 refill in it. I have a small trick that I use to make it better and will go over in another post. But comfort wise... I am happiest here.

4. Hero 616. ($1.00)

Yes, there are two fountain pens here. This one stays filled with Thornton's Luxury Goods Black ink. Never gets cleaned... just refilled. I tweaked the nib to where it's somewhere between a fine and a medium and it's juicy. Not good for cheap paper, but good for my better notebooks. If someone asks me about this pen, I usually give it away to them and buy these by the 12 pack.

5. Pilot Penmanship. ($.8.00)

Extra fine goodness, I swear this would write on toilet paper without bleeding. I think it's a refilled cartridge with Parker's Super Quink but I am not sure. I just simply love it and have used this one for 3 or 4 years now consistently.

I do realize that these 5 pens are fairly inexpensive, but I don't mind that at all. These 5 will get me through 99% of my writing needs and I can easily replace them (by going to my stash) where I have backups.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Quick update on the pens that I carry on a daily basis and what has been in heavy rotation. The other side of the book has my fountain pens. Will get a shot of those later. The G-6 has a Sarasa .4 (blue-black) in it (as does the Waterman.) Click for a better view. I need to review the Techno Line, I really like that little thing. After going from 20-30 pens in my bag, I have settled down a little. This changes when I travel, but for now I am happy with the rotation.